Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm (also known as Mortal Kombat: The Animated Series) is an Animated Adaptation of the Mortal Kombat games. It aired on the USA Network's USA Cartoon Express animation block from September to December of 1996.

DotR follows from the events of the first live-action movie. Raiden gathers again a group of warriors to stand against the forces of the Outworld and various other invading dimensions. The series also introduced a handful of characters, one of whom (Quan Chi) was later a mainstay in the fighting games.

DotR makes continuity problematic, since Mortal Kombat: Annihilation starts immediately in the same place. However, the cartoon is held in higher regard than Annihilation, so it generally takes precedence.

This series has examples of:

Adaptational Villainy: Scorpion. True, he's no saint in the games, but is more neutral if anything. Here? His very first line in the show makes it clear what team he's playing on:

Scorpion: By all the powers of evil, I will not rest until I have my revenge!

Backported Development: When Liu Kang has a flashback about his victory over Shang Tsung, Tsung has the beard and facepaint he uses on this series (from Mortal Kombat 3), even though he didn't have them in the live-action movie, which the flashback represents.

Both played straight and averted with Kano. When he's shown in a flashback of Sonya's partner's death, he wears his series/MK3 outfit, yet in a flashback to their fight in the movie, both Sonya and Kano have their movie looks.

Badbutt: Sub-Zero, most of the time (however, in two episodes, one of them being the last one, he uses his ice powers to kill enemies)

When Sub-Zero introduces himself, he reveals to be the young brother of the old one, killed by Liu Kang. In the games, the elder Sub-Zero, who would become Noob Saibot, was killed by Scorpion.

In the Liu Kang vs. Sub-Zero scene of DotR, Kitana sported her outfit from the series, and Sub-Zero (the elder) was finished by Liu Kang throwing a water bucket to him, freezing him. In the first movie, Kitana wore a different outfit, and Liu Kang finished Sub-Zero by throwing said water bucket to him, but the water became a big spearhead, and nailed Sub-Zero to the wall and then got himself frozen.

Another Liu Kang kill that was softened for the cartoon was Shang Tsung. Sure, he's still reduced to a skeleton upon defeat, but one: he just turns into bones, instead of actually emaciating, and two: the bed of spikes where Tsung landed in the movie is absent.

Cross Through: Resurrection is the third part of a four-part storyline aired on November 16, 1996 about a "Warrior King" chasing down a powerful MacGuffin through four (otherwise unrelated) USA Network Saturday morning cartoons. Two notes regarding this: unlike the other three parts, the DotR episode features only the MacGuffin, with the Warrior King himself only appearing as an unexplained-with-just-the-context-of-DotR-alone shadow for all of five seconds; and the american Street Fighter cartoon was one of the other four cartoons in the storyline, making this the closest the two Dueling Games have ever come to interacting.

Composite Character: Stryker has a couple of personality traits from Johnny Cage, who is absent from this cartoon.

Disney Villain Death: Scorpion gets frozen by Sub-Zero, then thrown into some kind of pitch-black abyss inside a temple by Raiden.

Downer Ending: Due to the series' cancellation after one season. Outworld is in chaos with Shao Kahn gone (but there is a very good chance that he'll return anyway), Kitana's rebellion to restore Edenia fails, and there is no indication whatsoever that Earthrealm's invasions will stop.

Fusion Dance: The few times Nightwolf entered kombat himself, he would magically merge with his pet wolf Kiva and open a can of whoop-ass on the enemies. This happened exactly twice in the whole series. Why the others kept him in front of a computer screen all the time is unknown.

Heel-Face Turn: Even though Sub-Zero helps the good guys from the beginning, he mentions he was a Lin Kuei and fought for the forces of darkness. A later episode showed how he came to join the team.

I Gave My Word: Sub-Zero and Smoke once swore an oath to never fight one another, which Smoke can't remember at first due to being a cyborg, but he ends up remembering it and tells Sub-Zero that it's impossible for them to be friends, but he will honor their oath now that he remembers it.

Title Drop: By Nightwolf, in the first episode, called "Kombat Begins Again", after chatting with Liu Kang.

Tomboy and Girly Girl: Lieutenant Sonya Blade and Princess Kitana. Ironically, during their inevitable Girls' Night Out Episode, it's Sonya who asks Kitana if she ever misses being a woman, what with all the fighting. Earlier in the episode, Sonya attempted to get herself a makeover, only to be given a sexist remark from Jax.

Totally Radical: While the series isn't as bad with it as some others, you know you've seen everything when you see, of all people, Raiden saying "Now kick your jets and jam!"

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